Barred candidates get appeal deadline

MP candidates disqualified for the poll have until Monday to appeal the Election Commission's (EC) decision, EC secretary-general Puchong Nutrawong said on Tuesday.

Published: 07/01/2014 at 07:43 PM

Writer: Online Reporters

The EC said they can appeal against the decision to the Supreme Court's Election Cases Division.

The poll organiser announced on Monday 87 MP candidates, four being fielded by the Pheu Thai Party, have been ruled out of the election for not meeting the qualifying criteria stipulated by the Constitution.

The well-known names among those barred include Arisaman Pongruengrong, Charan Dittha-apichai, Pol Gen Wirun Fuensaen and Thaworn Teerattanawong of the Pheu Thai Party, and Chatchai Chukaew and Supachai Jaisamut of the Bhumjaithai Party.

Mr Puchong said all six individuals did not exercise their voting rights for the 2011 election.

Five more Bhumjaithai candidates, five from Chart Pattana and five from Chartthaipattana, were also in the mix.

Mr Puchong revealed that 25 political parties out of 53 have had candidates barred.

A total of 60 have been disqualified because they did not cast a vote in the previous election and 25 due to the duration of their political party membership being less than 30 days at the time of their registration. The court revoked the voting rights of one, and the other is below the age of candidacy.

The incident has reduced the total number of MP candidates from 1,249 to 1,162.